‘Saturday Night Live’ music: Rihanna performs ‘American Oxygen,’ ‘B***h Better Have My Money’
If there is one thing that Rihanna managed to not advocate during her “Saturday Night Live” performance this weekend, it was responsible driving. In what was a pretty elaborate set for the show, Rihanna spent the first verse of her new single “B***h Better Have My Money” pretending to drive.
This was an elaborately-staged production, and there’s no doubt that she is one of the better performers in the pop era. However, we don’t think that this is one of her better songs. It doesn’t have much of a captivating melody, and we prefer her when she is a little less dark musically, and a little more upbeat. Many of her bigger hits are a little more upbeat with lyrics that are easy to dance to. Then again, we’re not surprised that she is branching out. She has been in the industry for a while, and she has already done more traditional hits over the years that she may be interested in trying something new.
The thing that really surprised us here? How short this performance seemed to be. Maybe it just went by quickly, but it did feel superficially like it was over in a few seconds.
Interestingly, the second song she performed was “American Oxygen,” a song we had never heard before but we much preferred to the first one. This was pretty emotional, and while it was different from most of Rihanna’s sound, there was still enough of a melody there for us to be attracted to it. Is this the most lyrically-poignant song that she has ever performed? We’re thinking that it might be.
To read our review of tonight’s episode in terms of the sketches, head over to the link here. Also, you can sign up to grab some other TV updates on all we cover via our CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: NBC.)